
Spisehuset Rub & Stub in the historic center of Copenhagen
»Wir zeigen, wie wenig jeder Einzelne anders denken muss, damit sich etwas ändert.« »We’re showing, how little you have to think differently to change something.«
– Sophie Sales (Rub & Stub, Kopenhagen) –
[04|15] Man nehme: Eine gehörige Portion Idealismus, ein Dutzend Helfer – und jede Menge Lebensmittelüberschüsse, die leider auch in Dänemark zuhauf anfallen. Fertig ist das Restaurant Spisehuset Rub & Stub (= mit Stumpf und Stiel), das von einer Schar Freiwilliger in der Altstadt Kopenhagens betrieben wird. Über mangelnden Zulauf – und damit auch Aufmerksamkeit für das Thema Lebensmittelverschwendung – können sich die vielen Aktiven nicht beklagen. Wir haben mit Sophie Sales gesprochen, – die Freiwillige und Mitgründerin zugleich ist – acht Sätze vorgegeben … und ihr den Rest überlassen.
You are taking one good dose of idealism, a dozen helper – and plenty of food surpluses which unfortunately also arise in Denmark abound. Finished is the restaurant Rub & stub (= with root and branch) in the old town of Copenhagen, which is run by a colorful crowd of volunteers. About a lack of supply – and therefore attention to the issue of food waste – they can’t complain. We spoke to Sophie Sales, – which is volunteer and co-founder as well – set eight sets … and give her the rest.
1Sophie, Spisehuset Rub & Stub ist das Ergebnis von …Sophie, Spisehuset Rub & Stub is the result of …

… 8 to 10 young volunteers meeting at the right time at the right place. Some were looking for a sustainable way to serve food for their volunteer driven café called Retro (the first non profit organisation, who invested in the Rub & Stub project and made it possible to start up to begin with). Some of us had worked in industrial kitchens during study years and had seen a lot of food waste and just wanted to figure out, how some of that food could be picked up systematically before it is beeing discarted. Not only to put focus on the food waste issue, but also to present a positive, solution focused way of handling your groseries. A lot of people, politicians and NGOs point out the problems with „first world“ food waste. You do paralyze people if you keep giving them extreme numbers and overwhelmingly large problems with the market and society. We want to point out some of the small, simple and practical everyday routuines – and on the longterm a basic mindset – that can make everyone see the change in their own kitchen and shopping style regarding surplus food.
The difference between Spisehuset Rub & Stub and other restaurants is …
… that everything is driven by volunteers who wants to spend their night off from work or studying to help inspiring our guests to grasp a more sustainable food culture.
The visitors of Spisehuset Rub & Stub are mostly …

… very positive! They come in all ages and „classes“. From young students to politicians, musicians playing elsewhere in the culture house and tourists just dropping in coincidentally. Of course a lot visit us because they’re fan of the concept – almost everyone in the world can relate to the stupidity of wasting perfectly fine food. It is so very universal to us as human beings to care about food somehow – even though we don’t know at all how to cook ourselves. But in the restaurant we always have to be sure that guests are aware about the concept. About volunteers serving to them. Otherwise we’ll get complaints about for example „small portions“ until we tell that we want people to be able to eat it all and then ask for free refill if they want more.
In our restaurant we save each month about one ton of food but to change the things permanently we should …

… not get any surplus food at all. Because there wouldn’t be any. Every food waste concept is just „symptom treatment“, but we keep doing it to highlight the food waste issue and create debate and a willingness to change consumption habits or demand a different food system. We do it by showing, how little you have to think differently.
The most incredible food that we have kept from being thrown away were …

… the „Putin butter“ – Butter with Russian print on, donated to us due to sanctions against Russia. We’ve had a deal with a fishmonger as well, donating luxury stuff as virgin lobster, mussels and so on. And a bureau trying to brand a new invasive fish species in Denmark where we had to invent how at all to cook this weird and tiny litlle fish that none has eaten before in Denmark – but it’s very popular in Italy! And then we get a lot of potatos which are really fine, but when the shops sell „new potatos“ during spring and summer time, customers expect them to be very petite. It’s just because the potatos are harvested early. If the are harvested „too late“, they grow bigger than the conformal size and cannot be sold, even though it’s the same. Then producers toss’em all. It really illustrates how ridiculous the food market has become.
Spisehuset Rub & stub is not open branch in Germany because …

… maybe something alike will pop up. It needs to be bottom up driven by local volunteer’s passionate interest in the project. We’re nothing without them. It is a very fine balancing between volunteer leading and wanting to say YES and do more when we’re invited. But one step at a time. We need a solid concept and routine, and if some volunteers – we have a lot of exchange students – feel like opening another eatery someplace else, we’d love to share our experience.
7In Dänemark gibt es zwar keine Organisation wie Foodsharing in Deutschland, aber stattdessen haben wir …
In Denmark there is not an organization as Foodsharing like in Germany, but instead we do have …
… a lot of sharing markets, where you don’t bring money but clothes, work tools, art, kitchen stuff and so on to swap. We also have „Copenhagen Food Club“ where you can sign up for having strangers over for dinner once in a while or be a guest yourself. Or a dinner online concept „Dinner Surfer“ where you can see what people in the neighborhood has cooked tonight and have made extra to sell as take away. There we have the young „ReGastro“, a handful of young students doing a pop up Rub & Stub-like concept at schools, festivals, events where they cook surplus food for visitors. Soon a supermarket will open in Copenhagen with nothing but surplus food on the shelves from the other stores in the supermarket chain.
To conclude, Sophie: The mission of Spisehuset Rub & Stub ends when …

… none have any surplus food anymore. Because we’ve changed the circle of the food system, the way we produce, transport, sell, cook and eat.
Danke, Sophie | Thank you, Sophie.
At Spisehuset Rub & Stub in Copenhagen it is cooked, what is left in the wholesale and supermarkets, but also at farmers. It is therefore not surprising that it always manages to day pass, which would have been even otherwise thrown away the day before or the day elsewhere. According varied the offer. The restaurant is run by volunteers – only in the kitchen there is a full-time cook. Launched in 2014, there is a handful of food saver that are supported by numerous volunteers.
Spisehuset Rub & Stub
Rådhusstræde 13, 1.th
Kopenhagen
spisrubogstub.dk
©Fotos: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung Rub & Stub
ME für magazin-restkultur.de | © Magazin für Restkultur 2015